Just Give Me A Reason
by AnnaKendrick47
Summary: As the Bellas head to the World Championships of A Cappella, they notice their small captain is acting really weird, going out to parties late, trying drugs and etc, heading into a dark, self destructive path. This makes a certain redhead Bella feel desperate to know what is up with her favorite DJ. Bechloe. Rated M for strong content.
1. Chapter 1

_I wanted to try something a little darker. I don't want this story to be more than 20 chapters long, maybe it'll have like 11, 12, I don't know, it won't be very long. I hope you like it, though I have to say it will contain strong contents. You've been warned._

* * *

The Bellas were pacing. Nervous.

Chloe was talking to herself. Again (She developed this habit after their second ICCA's win). She was walking back and forth from side to side, telling herself that it would all be okay even though deciding to put Amy up in the slings probably wasn't her best idea, but now there was nothing to do about it.

Stacie was checking herself out in the mirror, sometimes smirking while she made sure her cleavage showed a lot but not that much, after all, she didn't wanna flash the President.

Flo was talking in Spanish, warming up her ankles and wrists sitting in a corner.

Lily was being weird, whispering things and practicing her beatboxing while she combed her bangs for the thousandth time.

Amy was just sitting quietly probably for the first time in her life. Sometimes she'd make a funny comment but she was quiet for the most part.

Cynthia Rose was practicing while she pretended not to check out Stacie but really, everyone noticed.

Jessica and Ashley were talking to each other excitedly, going over the steps and the songs over and over to make sure they wouldn't forget everything.

And Beca.

Beca was just sitting with one leg over the arm of the chair and the over supported her head. She was watching Chloe pace back and forth while talking to herself. She was chuckling quietly though.

"Chloe, stop that, you're gonna burn the sole of your shoes." Beca said.

"This is for the _President_ , Beca! On his _birthday_ , how can you _not_ be nervous?" Chloe asked.

"Well, we performed for thousands of people already, we're just gonna do it how we've always done." Beca said before grabbing her phone and texting Jesse.

Chloe rolled her eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"You girls are gonna psych yourselves out. We're gonna be fine." Beca said.

"What if something goes wrong? What if we forget the song? Or the steps?" Chloe asked, starting to hyperventilate.

"Chloe, we've rehearsed this a million times, we sing this in our sleeps, we can do this." Beca said.

There was something about how Beca was all 'I don't care', sitting back, her leg up, texting, it was ironic. She wasn't even close to being a little nervous. It was like she was singing for a kid's birthday party, not for the President. Chloe did not get how she did that.

Well, I guess that was a good thing. Beca had always been the laid back, relaxed one. She rarely got nervous. Chloe was the opposite. This was her seventh year of being a Bella and she still got nervous every single time. They balanced each other that way because Beca's laid back nature made Chloe feel secure about their performances.

"Bellas? You're on in 10 minutes." the stage manager popped his head inside the dressing room and left.

The Bellas all got up and got out, going to the wings to wait so they could go in.

It was all going well. Right up until Fat Amy did something wrong with the slings and ended up upside down with her legs spread. Worse. Her pants ripped and she wasn't wearing any underwear. _Really Fat Amy?!_

Chloe could feel her eyes watering in nervousness of watching the disaster unfold and not being able to do anything to stop it. She watched the President with an unamused face and she wished the floor would swallow her.

Beca was trying to do something too, but there was nothing she could do. She heard the crowd's gasp and she shut her eyes.

 _Crap_.

oO0Oo

During weeks the Bellas went through some name calling and glares. They were hated by the entire university, except of course, the Trebles, which helped a little bit.

Again, Beca didn't show any worries. She kept making her mixes, didn't show any signs of being at least a little afraid. Not even when the Collegiate A Cappella Association announced they had a meeting with the dean about them.

The Bellas held their heads up high as they walked across campus to go meet the dean and the Collegiate A Cappella Association.

Okay. They couldn't compete in the ICCA's anymore and they were out of their own victory tour. It wasn't that bad. At least it didn't seem like it for Beca. She never changed her expression. _Maybe this is her way of coping_ , thought Chloe.

They headed back to the Bellas house, with no idea what to do. They were gonna compete in the World Championships of A Cappella, which was even more terrifying than being out of the ICCA's.

Beca wasn't home for even 5 minutes before she was out again without mention anything to the Bellas, not even to Chloe, her co-captain.

"Anyone else thinks the midget is acting weird about this whole thing?" Stacie asked while she put a huge box of what would usually be fan mail on the kitchen counter.

"I thought I was the only one! She hasn't even.. what is up with her?!" Chloe said.

"Well, Beca's always been closed off." Fat Amy shrugged. "Let her be, she'll come around when she notices this is probably the end of the Bellas."

"I hope so." Chloe said with a sigh.

"Ugh!" Stacie said. "It's been months and we're _still_ getting hate mail?"

Chloe rolled her eyes.

Stacie just put letter after letter on the trash beside her, handing some stuff to Amy or Flo every now and then.

Flo grabbed a box of razors and a letter with a puzzled look.

"'For your hairy situation'?" she read out loud. She then eyed the razors and then her mouth formed an 'o' as she quietly put the letter away but kept the razors because well.

oO0Oo

Beca smiled as she saw her boyfriend and ran up to him, giving him a kiss before looking around, confused.

"What kind of party is this supposed to be?" she asked.

"Well, we're just celebrating the beginning of the year before the initiation party next week." Jesse said. "You know the drill."

Beca nodded.

"So why are you here alone? Why didn't you invite the Bellas?" Jesse asked.

Beca shrugged.

"Well since everything is about the World's and stuff everyone in that house is maxed out with stress, especially Chloe." Beca said.

"Well, I'm glad you're taking a break." Jesse said. "You're always with them."

"Yeah but they're my best friends." Beca said.

"I know." Jesse said.

Okay so maybe they have been dating for 3 years, but lately, they've had fight after fight and it was always about the same thing: the Bellas. Though in the last few weeks their fights were directing towards Chloe. Beca still didn't get why Jesse would always start something whenever the girls came up.

"Wanna have a drink?" he offered.

"Oh, please!" Beca said and he grabbed her hand, taking her to the table where all the drinks were.

"So? What's it gonna be? Something strong to start the year?" Jesse asked. "We have a lot of red fruits here tonight. You might like it."

"Is this like a really bad reference to Chloe's hair?" Beca asked. "Dude, why do you always have to bring her up?"

"I was just saying! And hey I'm your boyfriend, you don't need to call me 'dude' all the time." Jesse said calmly.

"I call everyone that, _dude_ , so suck it up." Beca said, filling a cup of vodka and cranberry juice, putting more vodka than juice.

"Come on, Becs, I don't wanna start something. I'm just saying it's weird." Jesse said.

Beca shrugged, not meeting his eyes. He frowned.

"Becs, come on, I don't wanna start a fight." he pleaded, grabbing her arm.

"Then why did you bring Chloe into this?" Beca asked.

"I didn't, I just said that because I know you love red fruit!" Jesse said. "Lately all you've talked about was her, you know."

"Jesse, I'm not doing this." Beca said, finally looking up at him. "I'm not fighting with you."

"Good, thanks." Jesse said.

The couple stood in silence for many moments, barely dancing to the song playing in the background.

Beca suddenly groaned and grabbed Jesse's wrist, taking him inside the house, running through the crowds before they finally made it upstairs to Jesse and Benji's room, Beca locked the door behind her before she attached her lips to Jesse's.

oO0Oo

Beca hugged herself and shivered from the cold, mentally slapping herself for not bringing a jacket or something warm. She stopped to take off her shoes as she approached the Bellas house and saw the lights out. She gently opened the door with her key and made her way inside.

She felt disgusting, maybe because she was all sweaty, smelled like Jesse (not just Jesse, _sweaty_ Jesse) and could feel her jeans wet from the boy's cum. She didn't even clean herself after they had sex for the fourth time, she just put on her jeans and came home when she saw it was past 4 in the morning.

"Where were you?" a voice said in the dark.

Beca jumped high in the air, putting her hand on her heart to steady it as she took a few deep breaths.

"Damn it Flo do you _have_ to hide in the dark like that?" Beca said, though she still couldn't spot the girl.

"Sorry. We've been worried about you. Especially Chloe." Flo said. "Why do I smell men's cologne?"

"I was with Jesse." Beca explained. "I'm gonna take a shower, I feel gross."

"You smell like vodka, beer and Jesse." Flo said.

"Thanks, Flo." Beca said sarcastically as she ran upstairs. She grabbed a T-shirt and shorts from her room before she headed to the bathroom.

After she had washed all the various smells from herself, she put on her pj's and went back into her bedroom. She sighed as she closed her eyes and tried to sleep. Keyword being try.


	2. Chapter 2

Chloe had just finished entering the Bellas into the World's and she smiled proudly. She was a little upset that her co-captain was not there to support her, ask if she needed help or just be there. For the second time. She tried not to think about it too much though.

She had been worried when she found Beca's clothes in the hamper last night and saw what could only be cum stain. Her heart ached.

Yeah, so Chloe's been in love with Beca ever since she first saw her in the Activities Fair in 2012, but she's learned to move on. Now she just wanted the DJ to be happy, though it hurt her every time she had to watch Beca and Jesse together.

Fat Amy opened there door and there was a tall brunette girl with a smiley face that reminded her a little bit of Chloe. The girl claimed she wanted to sing for the Bellas since she didn't see them at the audition.

Chloe wanted to hear the girl, I mean she was a legacy, they _had_ to hear her sing!

After the girl, Emily, showed she had some skills and she was Bella potential, she talked to the Bellas about letting her in.

"I don't think we should decide anything without Beca." Cynthia Rose said.

"Maybe she should be here more often for important decisions." Chloe said with a hint of anger in her voice but she quickly masked it.

The Bellas let Emily in and they were so happy to be going to the initiation party. If it wasn't for the freshman, they probably wouldn't have attended the party.

After going through the tall bushes (even though there was a gate), the Bellas went to the Trebles backyard and Chloe already filled her yellow cup with some drinks and smiled when she spotted Jesse.

"Jesse!" she said. "Where is Beca? I thought she was with you tonight."

Jesse frowned in confusion.

"I thought she was with you." he said.

"I thought she was with you." Chloe frowned in confusion too.

Jesse sighed.

"I'll call her." he said, taking his phone out.

Chloe nodded and turned back to the Bellas and they all made their way to the pool area and started dancing.

Jesse sat down, trying to text his girlfriend since he couldn't reach her and was surprised by a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and was met with a smiley, though red eyed, Beca. She gave him a kiss and sat down beside him with a sigh.

"Hey, where were you?" he asked.

"Around." she shrugged.

"Chloe asked where you were." he said. "And I was worried."

Beca shrugged again and threw her head back with a giggle. Jesse narrowed his eyes.

"Did you smoke something?" he asked.

"No." Beca said, though he knew she was lying.

"Alright." Jesse asked. "So really where were you?"

"Just out, dude!" Beca snapped back at him.

"Chill out, Beca! Are you on your period or something?" Jesse asked.

"Only the last day, so it doesn't count." Beca said.

"I just want to know where my girlfriend was all afternoon? Because apparently the Bellas didn't know either." Jesse said.

"Can't I have some time for myself and not have people asking where I was?" Beca asked. "Dude!"

"I asked you to stop calling me dude. And I was worried!" Jesse said.

"Well stop worrying, I'm here." Beca said.

"But your eyes are red and you smell like pot." Jesse said.

"Dude! Leave me alone, okay?" Beca said. "Jesus!"

"Come here." Jesse said, grabbing her wrist. She did scream a few things but he managed to get into the house and into his room. "Will you tell me what's going on with you? First you disappear for like 5 hours and now you show up smelling like pot!"

"I said leave me alone!" Beca said.

"I can't leave you alone, I'm your boyfriend and, believe it or not, I worry and care about you." Jesse said.

Beca closed her eyes took a deep breath.

oO0Oo

Stacie frowned as she watched Jesse drag a screaming Beca into the Trebles house and head upstairs with her.

"What is he doing?" she asked.

"Apparently they're fighting. Again." Cynthia Rose said. "Thomas said he and Beca had been fighting nonstop for the past few months and, somehow, it always leads to at least 3 hours of crazy, loud sex. From his part. Beca never makes a sound."

Chloe frowned at the information.

"They fight and have sex? Man, I wish I had a relationship like this." Stacie said.

Fat Amy shot her a weird look.

"They've been fighting?" Chloe asked.

Of course this was gonna spark the redhead's interest.

"Maybe that's why she's been distant." Chloe said.

"Yeah." Fat Amy said and they jumped when they heard a sound of something breaking along with Beca screaming. Then silence.

The Bellas exchanged looks before they saw Beca coming towards them, eyes red and puffy, tear stains in her cheeks.

Nobody asked anything as the DJ filled a cup with something they didn't notice and joined them. She started dancing and soon forgot about her problems.

Jesse watched, a little mad, from a few feet away. He hated how touchy feely Beca was with Chloe and how she didn't mind when she gave her a few playful slaps on her butt without even complaining, while he couldn't even do that without earning a glare from her.

"Beca?" he said.

"Jesse not now." Beca whined, clearly a little bit too tipsy.

"Yes now, I wanna talk to you." he said.

Beca groaned but then giggled, turning back to the Bellas, he grabbed her by the wrist and turned her around.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked.

They got a little attention from the crowd and that didn't go unnoticed by Beca. She looked around before grabbing him by the back of his neck and kissing him hard, rough. He was gonna protest but the words died in his throat when he felt Beca grind against him and he found himself getting hard. Beca must've felt it too because she quickly grabbed his hand and led him inside.

"That's weird." Cynthia Rose said.

"That's not right." Jessica said. "There's something seriously wrong."

Chloe just frowned and continued looking at the spot Beca and Jesse were in, as if they were still there. The scene replaying in her mind over and over. She felt her stomach do weird flips, in the worst way. Not only because she was jealous, but because she knew there was something seriously wrong going on with Beca.


	3. Chapter 3

_Sorry this is short_

* * *

Things calmed down a little after initiation night. Beca had been more present in the house, helping Chloe and she seemed to be happier instead of moody. The Bellas were all relieved, they hated having a moody and distant Beca.

They were now going to a car show that they were supposed to be singing in if it wasn't for the accident at Kennedy Center and Das Sound Machine stealing their tour. This was supposed to be theirs, it was supposed to be the Bellas singing at the Ford Car Show, not DSM.

They were watching. And for the first.. 5 seconds they didn't feel threatened at all. But then it happened.

Shit, they were good. More than good, they were awesome! But of course none of the girls was willing to admit that anytime soon.

Chloe practically had steam coming from her ears as she watched. If looks could kill, DSM would all be on the floor right after their performance. She watched a tall blonde girl look at them and smirk before the group made their way over to the Bellas.

"Barden Bellas! You came here to see us?" the blonde said. "Is that because you are.. how do the American kids say? Jelly!"

Chloe scoffed.

"We are _so_ not jelly." she said.

Beca was just watching the girl, looking her up and down. She was incredibly tall but boy, she was hot. Beca shook that thought from her head. No, she wasn't hot. Not even attractive. She just _wasn't_.

She tried to sound confident when she told DSM that the Bellas would kick their ass, but when the Kommissar stepped closer to her, her confidence was gone. She mentally slapped herself when she called the blonde 'physically flawless'. And then she made a complete fool of herself by making crazy hand gestures when they left.

"Okay. We gotta do something." Fat Amy said.

"Not just something we have to do something amazing to beat them!" Stacie said.

"Guys, guys, calm down! We got this." Beca said and Chloe eyed her curiously. "I have a plan."

oO0Oo

Chloe had a small smile as she fixed her hair for rehearsal. She put on her shoes and made her way to the small auditorium where the Bellas rehearsed. She was usually the first one to arrive but this time the brunette captain was already there looking through her laptop.

"Oh! Hey Bec!" Chloe said, surprised.

"Hey Chloe." Beca said, looking up at her briefly.

"What a pleasant surprise." Chloe smiled, putting her bags down. "I've been meaning to ask you, how are you and Jesse?"

"We're good now, thanks." Beca offered her a small smile.

"Good." Chloe said and approached the DJ. "So? Any ideas on what we're going to sing?"

Beca sighed and put her elbows on the table and rested her head on her hands.

"Not a clue." Beca admitted with a sigh.

Chloe chuckled.

"Maybe we can work on new moves, maybe throw in some props!" Chloe said excitedly. "And that will give you time to work on some arrangement."

Beca hummed in thought.

"That's a good idea." she said.

"Okay." Chloe smiled.

Beca sighed, giving up on trying to think of something, it wouldn't happen there. She then stepped back from the laptop.

"Guess we have to wait until the girls arrive." Beca said.

"Yeah." Chloe said as she wrote Das Sound Machine in huge letters on the board with anger. "Hey, what was up with you complimenting the Kommissar?"

Beca groaned and then chuckled.

"I don't even know." she confessed with a shrug. "It doesn't matter."

Chloe raised an eyebrow.

"Beca, is there something you'd like to tell me?" Chloe asked.

"No." Beca said.

Chloe put her hand over Beca's, making the girl look up at her.

"You know you can talk to me about anything right? Anything at all." Chloe said.

Beca looked at Chloe's hand before looking up to meet the redhead's eyes. Chloe was offering her a sympathetic look and a small smile. She found herself staring back at Chloe's eyes for probably longer than she should have and when she realized that, she cleared her throat.

"Yeah. Thanks, Chlo." she said.

Chloe smiled at the nickname and took back her hand when the other girls came in. She saw Beca blush a little and look down while Cynthia Rose smirked at Chloe.

"Well girls, sit down. We've come up with a plan." Chloe said and she and Beca stood at either side of the white board.

Beca wasn't exactly listening to what Chloe was saying, she was just concentrated on getting her heartbeat to slow down.

"Beca?" Chloe called, wanting her to pay attention.

"Oh." Beca said. "Yeah. So we're gonna just rehearse some new tricks we want to try for the next gig we have."

"Whoa, we gave a gig?" Stacie asked excitedly.

"Yeah!" Chloe answered, just as excited.

"That's awesome! So what are we gonna sing?" Stacie asked.

"Umm I'm still finishing the arrangement, so it'll still be a while." Beca said and the girls nodded.

Chloe clapped.

"Let's get started aca-bitches!" Chloe said.

During the entire rehearsal, the Bellas did the hula hoop, forward rolls, tricks with all kinds of props and stuff, which made Beca think what kind of arrangement she could do.

She was collecting her laptop after rehearsal, she was in a hurry to get out of there.

And that's when Legacy approached her.

"Hey! Is it weird that we didn't get around to sing today?" She asked.

"Well we don't have an arrangement yet and that's on me so thanks for reminding me." Beca said. There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice that the younger girl didn't get.

"Yeah Bec we're gonna need that ASAP so we can start nailing down the choreography." Chloe said, grabbing her stuff too.

"Right on top of that, Chlo." Beca said.

Beca was about to leave when Legacy continued talking to her. She was starting to get agitated.

"I don't mean to be rude it's just I have somewhere I that I have to be." Beca explained as she began to leave. "You did great today."

Emily smiled as she watched Beca leave.


	4. Chapter 4

Chloe was trying to think of songs, watching videos of the other competitors, but that was stressing her out. The Bellas had already eaten dinner and now they were all in their pj's in the living room watching TV, talking or just hanging out. Well, all except for Beca. And that was starting to annoy them.

Fat Amy suddenly came up with an idea and she grabbed the pillow beside her, hitting Emily with it.

"Hey!" Emily said, grabbing another pillow and hitting the blonde back, accidentally hitting Stacie with it.

"Ow!" Stacie said, grabbing a pillow herself and hitting Emily.

The others all smiled and quickly joined them in the pillow fight. Chloe smiled and giggled as she was hit by many pillows and feathers came out of them.

They were jumping on the couches and having a blast when Beca came in the house. She looked at the Bellas with a confused look.

"What am I looking at?" She asked.

"Pillow fighting!" Amy said, hitting her with a pillow.

"Ah!" Beca complained.

"This is the only cardio I will ever do!" Fat Amy said.

"You know this sets women back like thirty years." Beca said.

"We're just relieving some stress." Chloe said, panting with a smile.

"This was on the porch." Beca said, holding a fancy looking envelope.

The Bellas stopped what they were doing and Chloe grabbed the envelope from Beca's hand.

"What's this?" She asked. "Ooh! It looks fancy!"

Chloe said, still panting. She opened the envelope and a chorus came on. Her eyes widened slightly and she closed it, looking at Beca, who looked, though her eyes were bloodshot, surprised.

Chloe opened and closed the envelope a few more times before she finally actually opened it.

"It looks like we've been invited to sing at some kind of a party!" She said.

"We're going to sing? Finally!" Emily said.

"There's just an address and a password." Chloe said.

"How sexy and mysterious!" Fat Amy said.

Lily mumbled something about having other people's teeth and then smiled creepily. The girls ignored her and all went upstairs to their room to get ready, except for Beca, who was already ready.

The girls all got ready and headed to the address they were given. They were a little scared about not knowing what this was and who was attending.

"Anybody else scared?" Chloe asked as they walked up to the porch of the house.

"Not really. I already lived longer than I expected." Flo said, making all the other girls way more scared. She was a cross between Fat Amy and Lily.

Beca knocked on the door and waited. A small window opened and a necklace showed up.

"Password." the guy demanded.

"Umm fart noise?" she said as the other girls held back giggles.

"Did you not see the parenthesis?" he asked.

Beca rolled her eyes as she brought her arm to her mouth and did a fart noise. The guy closed the window and opened the door.

"Barden Bellas! So glad you all came! Come on in!"

After the guy explained a little bit of what they were doing there but they were still confused. He took them down to what was the basement that was filled with people, mainly groups of a cappella.

After an unsuccessful banter with DSM, Chloe dragged Beca away from them and to where the Bellas were.

Beca was explaining herself when Jesse showed up behind her.

"Hey!" he said.

"Hey!" she said, surprised. "What are you doing here? What's going on?"

Jesse heard the Trebles calling him and he turned around.

"Well I guess I have to go."

"What? Why? What's going on?" she asked.

"I don't know." he said before going over to the Trebles.

He noticed she was agitated so he just shrugged and walked away. Something about her red eyes was bothering him. This was just not right.

They found out they were in some sort of riff off, which was really exciting! This was a bit different though.

Jesse just watched his girlfriend and couldn't help but feel some sort of jealousy and inquietude inside him. The girl was glued to Chloe's side and from the looks of it she was having so much fun. He had always been jealous of Chloe. She could get his girlfriend to open up to her like he never did in the 3 years they'd been together.

He just hated that Beca had been absent in the last few days, wasn't answering his calls or responding to his texts. He was sure she had been smoking weed, but didn't know with who, why or when. But his problem was mostly Chloe. How the redhead seemed to have Beca wrapped around her finger.

He didn't know what song Benji was singing about butts, maybe it was Sir Mix-A-Lot's song but he just cut Benji off when he saw Beca constantly glancing at Chloe.

 _"Where is my girlfriend, I've been calling she ain't picked up  
_ _Something's fishy, she won't hear me  
_ _Now I'm standing here like what the?"_

Surprisingly, the Trebles backed him up but nobody stopped them. Benji was just looking at Jesse as if he was asking 'what are you doing?'.

 _"This is too unusual, she never did it like this before  
_ _She usually calls me back within the hour  
_ _I bet she's out with what's her name?  
_ _The girl that doesn't have a man  
_ _Assumptions in my mind got me confused, girl"_

Jesse glanced at Beca with angry looks, glancing sometimes at Chloe, smirking as the ginger's cheeks turned as red as her hair.

 _"Sometimes she can't get her pretty hands off me  
_ _But when she's with her girlfriend she don't even speak  
_ _She can spot a pretty girl faster than I can  
_ _Tells me that she loves me but I'm tryna' understand"_

Beca felt anger boiling inside her, as well as all pairs of eyes between her and Chloe, who was trying her best to hide.

 _"I think my girl is bi ay ay ay ay ay ay"_

Before Jesse could continue though, the host stopped him.

"Okay, okay, okay. Jesse, what the living hell was that?" He asked. "You guys had it going!"

Jesse didn't answer, he just looked back at Beca, who looked about ready to explode.

"Trebles, you're out." He said.

Jesse didn't hear the guys complaining. He had about it with his fights and angry sex with Beca, as great as the later was.

Beca ran up to him and soon everybody got quiet.

"What the fuck was that?!" She demanded.

Jesse shrugged.

"This song kinda spoke to me." He said simply.

"Jesse you just accused me of cheating on you with Chloe! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Beca asked.

"Beca you spend all the time with her! These last couple weeks you disappeared completely and didn't even text or call me, what am I supposed to think?" He said.

"You're supposed to understand that I need time for myself, like everyone else does!" Beca said.

"Beca do you think I haven't noticed you wear sort of masculine clothes sometimes, you talk like a guy and sometimes _act_ like a guy?!" Jesse yelled. "It wouldn't be wrong to assume you're not straight. Sometimes you're more of a guy than I am!"

"Well it's not my fault my balls are bigger than yours!" Beca yelled and the crowd gasped.

Jesse was red with anger. He could explode if he was a bomb.

"Dude, I'm not cheating on you, okay?! Could you just leave me alone!" Beca said.

"I can't keep dating you like this, Beca! I know you're trying to be something you're not!" Jesse said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Beca frowned.

"I know you can't be straight." Jesse said.

"Who are _you_ to tell me what I am or what I'm not?!" Beca yelled.

"I'm just the guy who's dated you the last 3 fucking years, Beca! _That's_ who I am." He said.

"I'm done with you, Jesse. Done." Beca said, walking back to the Bellas.

Jesse was fuming. He didn't know what to do, he wanted to be with Beca but he didn't want at the same time.

"Okay, everyone! Show's over!" The host said. "Trebles, you should probably leave."

Beca was taking deep breaths, clenching her fists. No one in the Bellas said anything, waiting for the DJ to talk first. When she didn't say anything, they just remained quiet.

oO0Oo

Chloe was up all night watching videos and looking for arrangements the Bellas could sing in their next gig that would make a good choreography.

She was stressed but what was worse was she kept thinking about the tiny DJ. She said she'd be back late but it was almost 5 in the morning and she wasn't home.

As if Beca heard her thoughts, she stumbled through the door, giggling. She was clearly drunk but she smelled like something else. She smelled like weed and some sort of drug.

"Beca? Where the hell have you been?" Chloe asked.

"I was at the party." Beca said. She tried to take a step forward but she stumbled on her heels and fell to the ground. "Whoa! I just had sex with a bunch of guys."

Chloe crossed her arms at Beca's immature behavior.

"Jesse thinks I'm bi, I'll show him!" Beca said, kneeling before grabbing her stomach.

"Having sex with a bunch of guys doesn't make you straight, Beca." Chloe said.

Beca groaned.

"I need to puke." She said.

Chloe dragged her to the bathroom and held her hair back as the brunette threw up. She sighed.

"Beca, you have to take care of yourself." Chloe said. "You can have the inner battle you want, but you have to take care of yourself, this isn't healthy."

Beca threw up some more in response.

"Why people can't leave me alone?" She whined, sitting down on the bathroom floor.

"I _will_ leave you alone, you can do whatever you want but I'm just saying what you're doing is dangerous, Beca." Chloe said.

Beca groaned and threw her head back, before lying down on the floor with a soft hum.

"I'm gonna sleep." She announced.

"Here? Don't you wanna go to bed?" Chloe asked softly.

"Damn it, Chloe! Just leave me the fuck alone!" Beca screamed, getting up and pushing Chloe out of the bathroom. "Get out of here! Leave me alone!"

Chloe was shocked when Beca slammed the door shut, the house shuddering a bit when she did. She just stood where she was a few seconds before she slowly grabbed her laptop and went to bed. Where she finally broke down in tears.


	5. Chapter 5

The Bellas were sitting in the dressing room getting ready for their gig. Chloe was, once again, pacing. She was so worried this might be the last performance of the Barden Bellas, ever.

Beca was surprisingly upbeat but she blamed the braids.

Her and Chloe never talked about what happened the previous night. Mostly because Chloe wanted to give Beca the space she needed because it seemed like Beca was going through some hard times, probably related to her sexuality.

So Chloe decided Beca would come to her (or not, apparently) when she was ready, she wasn't gonna push her.

When they were on, Beca was so confused, she'd rehearsed this with them but she knew this wasn't her arrangement, this wasn't one of her songs. This was a really weird arrangement. Sure, it was good, but she could've done better.

Everything was going… bad. It was going really bad, especially when they brought on the props (which made Beca realize they were a bad, bad idea) and then something went wrong with Fat Amy, Flo, Emily and Cynthia Rose and that resulted in the later accidentally lighting herself on fire.

They stopped what they were doing and Beca ran her fingers through her hair with a heavy sigh. Chloe's eyes were desperate, she was so sure this would work. She was so sure this would be a step towards redemption but the girls were a mess. Probably because one of their captains was barely home and the other had to do everything on her own.

Chloe was in tears by the time they went back to the bus and headed back to Barden. Nobody said anything, except the girls started blaming each other. Chloe wanted to yell at Beca for not caring that her a cappella group (in which she was a captain by the way) seemed to be falling apart. But for some odd, unknown (actually very known) reason, she didn't. She kept quiet.

Chloe just stood up and tried to seem upbeat and announced they were going on a retreat as she remembered her blonde best friend told her about through the phone. Yeah, maybe a retreat was all the Bellas needed.

oO0Oo

The retreat was still far away and the Bellas had no more gigs, so Chloe talked to the Bellas about song suggestions they could sing so later they could show them to Beca so she could work on an arrangement.

The brunette captain was (surprise, surprise!) away. God knows where because it had already passed dinner time and she hadn't shown her ass in the house since 2 pm. Let's just say the Bellas were starting to get pretty worried.

"Do you think maybe we could.. I don't know start with.. I don't know but not singing, not using our mouths just probably clapping, snapping our fingers or just using our bodies?" Stacie asked. "Like give the crowd that feeling of 'what happens next?' instead of starting big."

Chloe nodded.

"I think we could do that and begin with _Run The World_." Chloe said.

Stacie nodded with a smile. Her phone rang once in her pocket and she looked to see who it was. A guy, probably one of her hookups, sent a text about a frat party that was going on and it was wild.

Stacie showed Chloe the message with a 'what do you think?' look.

"I normally would be against it, but I think we deserve a break." Chloe said.

Stacie smiled huge as Chloe shut her laptop.

"I'm gonna get the girls." Stacie said and ran upstairs in excitement.

Within 30 minutes, they were all out the door and heading to the frat house. Stacie and Chloe leading the girls and the redhead couldn't help but think how she wished Stacie was her co-captain, not Beca, because the taller brunette was being a _much_ bigger help than Beca lately.

When they arrived in their destination, there were people in the front yard, backyard. There was so many people there and the music was so _loud_!

They made their way inside and Stacie quickly found the guy who texted her and disappeared with him.

The other girls didn't know what to do so they just grabbed some drinks and tried to dance in the middle of the crowd.

Chloe was actually enjoying herself. She felt like she needed a break from the stress she was going through. She tried not to think about Beca and how she was making her so mad.

It seemed like the brunette always found a way back to her mind though because when Chloe was going to the upstairs bathroom (the other was locked) she opened the door to find Beca on the sink, making out and, by the looks of it, having sex with some random guy. She was wearing a skirt so Chloe couldn't see anything, but by the hips movement and by the grunting (from the guy), they were _definitely_ doing it.

They didn't seem to notice her because the guy grabbed Beca's ass and started thrusting faster.

Chloe just froze and let a choked sob escape her lips, getting the attention from the couple.

Beca's eyes widened and she held the guy closer to her body, as if to cover herself, even though she wasn't naked.

"Chloe, what the fuck!" Beca said, angry.

"So _that's_ what you've been doing this whole time?! Frat guys!" Chloe screamed.

"Chloe would you fucking leave? This is none of your business!" Beca said. "Stop stalking me! Leave me the fuck alone!"

Instead of fighting back in this awkward situation, Chloe just slammed the door and went downstairs, hiding the tears from her eyes.

The Bellas noticed them though but she shook it off and they decided to go to the backyard to sit down and cool off a little bit.

"Maybe we should kick her out?" Jessica asked.

"She hasn't been a captain lately." Ashley agreed.

"No. There is something wrong with her, she doesn't normally act like this." Chloe said. "If we push her away now, we'll lose her and then we're never gonna get through to her."

The Bellas thought about it and agreed. The redhead was right, Beca was pushing them away but if they did the same, they'd lose her. And if she continued going down that road, they'd probably lose her forever.

About an hour later, the said DJ showed up, looking so weird. She was a mess, her hair was out of place, she was sweaty, there was some liquid running down her bare thighs (which the girls didn't have to guess to know what it was), she looked drunk but her eyes were bloodshot and she kept sniffing.

She didn't seem to recognize the Bellas or remember what happened upstairs, she just laughed and attached her arm to a guy's neck, who wasn't the guy she was having sex with in the bathroom. Then another guy joined them and they kept kissing her ears or biting her neck, but she kept giggling and pushing them away. They then kept pulling her skirt up while she pushed their hands away, laughing. She sat down on the floor and giggled at them. One of them laid on top of her and started kissing her while the other complained about getting some action too.

The Bellas were utterly confused, the DJ never acted like that, and by the looks of it, she had tried many drugs, her nose started bleeding a little bit, which made her laugh and sit up. Both guys had their hands up her skirt.

Chloe stood up and walked over to them, shaking in fear.

"Beca?" She asked.

Beca looked at her and sniffed again, wiping the blood from her nose.

"Dude who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Chloe, _dude_." Chloe said. "Come on, let's get home."

"You need to leave me alone, dude!" Beca said, though she was giggling.

"It's gonna be okay, Beca, let's go home." Chloe said.

"No." Beca said laughing. "I wanna stay and have sex with these two gentlemen."

Chloe bit her lips to try and stop her tears. Not that it was working.

"Okay." She said weakly and turned around.

The Bellas offered Chloe a hug and they all headed home. Beca's situation was more terrifying than they thought.


	6. AN

**Hey guys! Listen, I was thinking about deleting this and _Paradise Misplaced_ because I started writing another story and I don't wanna have too many stories unfinished. I still kept the documents and maybe I'll post them agains someday. **

**My new story is gonna be a student/teacher love story, obviously Bechloe and I wanted to focus on that one, since I'm planning on finishing _A Beauty And A Beat_ and _Words of Secret_.**

 **Love,**

 **Juls**


	7. Chapter 6

_A lot of you guys asked me not to give up on this story and it's already almost finished anyways so I'm not gonna delete this one and I'm gonna leave Paradise Misplaced on hiatus or I'm gonna delete that_

 _Btw: you're probably gonna want to murder Beca after this chapter_

* * *

After they saw Beca, the Bellas had been more and more worried. Their DJ just wasn't the same person anymore. It seemed like she didn't remember anything, though. If she did, she acted like she didn't.

So they tried to give weak excuses to get her to stay home. Well, not weak. Just weak on Beca's point of view, like "help me with the arrangement" or "we have song options" or "we need ideas for the World's". None of those made Beca stay.

The retreat was still going to take a couple weeks and that only made Chloe even more anxious. The more time they took to go, the more Beca went out, did drugs and frat guys.

Chloe had grown used to going to sleep past 4, she couldn't go to sleep knowing her beloved Beca was destroying herself like that. She tried to work on the set, the choreography, the ideas, the costumes but she couldn't. Her mind was practically going blank and everyday she felt closer to collapsing. Huh. Probably like Beca did but in a different way.

She jumped when her phone started ringing and she smiled when she saw it was Beca. Maybe she had seen the light and wanted Chloe to pick her up, maybe she felt guilty and needed her best friend.

"Hello? Beca?" she answered, smiley.

" _Umm hi.. who's this?_ " A guy voice said.

"Chloe Beale, who's this?" Chloe asked, frowning.

" _I'm Dale. Your friend is passed out on the floor._ " he said.

"Oh my God, what?!" Chloe asked, standing up.

" _Yeah, she just passed out._ " Dale said. " _Could you come and.. take her home? Or.. I don't know, we've tried giving her water, she's completely unconscious._ "

Chloe shut her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She would've been worried if it wasn't for her anger.

"Where is she?" Chloe asked.

" _Sigma Beta._ " Dale said.

"Thank you." Chloe said. She put her phone in her pocket, grabbed her jacket, her house keys and left.

Sigma Beta wasn't that far from the Bellas house and with the angry steps Chloe was taking, she got there in less than 10 minutes. She made her way inside through the crowd. When she didn't find Beca downstairs, she went upstairs and sure enough, the girl was passed out in the hall.

Chloe walked over to her and knelt down beside her.

"Hey, are you Chloe?" a guy asked.

"Yeah." she said.

"I'm Dale." he said.

"What happened?" Chloe asked, trying giving some light slaps on Beca's cheeks to get her to wake up.

"Well, she was up here in the room with five other guys, they were doing coke and heroine and drinking. I think she had sex with them and then I don't know Steve just yelled that she had passed out and they all left. I didn't know what to do." Dale explained.

Chloe sighed and turned her attention back to Beca. She was wearing a short skirt again, no shoes or socks, a loose low cut top but Chloe noticed she wasn't wearing any underwear.

"Where is her underwear, Dale?" she asked, pulling the skirt lower to try to cover Beca a little more.

"The guys took it with them." Dale said.

Chloe sighed. This wasn't working. Beca was still out cold and even though she was breathing, didn't show signs of waking up anytime soon.

"I'm gonna have to carry her." Chloe said. "Thanks, Dale, I'll take it from here."

"Okay, good luck. Oh!" Dale said and gave her Beca's phone.

Chloe offered him a smile and picked Beca up and carried her bridal style back to the Bellas house. The DJ wasn't heavy and Chloe still had adrenaline running through her veins due to the anger she felt.

How could Beca have been so _stupid_? So many drugs, so much sex? Why didn't she take better care of herself? _Why_ did she have to act like a stupid 16 year old?

Chloe managed to open the door and walked inside. She kicked the door closed and took Beca to the upstairs bathroom, throwing her in the shower and turning the cold water on. After a little while, the DJ woke up. She looked around, confused, but when she saw she wasn't in danger, she closed her eyes again. She opened them a while later and suddenly threw up on herself while Chloe held her hair back. It was then that Beca noticed someone was holding her.

Beca looked up at Chloe but she couldn't, for the life of her, keep her eyes opened. She kept pushing Chloe's hands away but the redhead insisted, tears in her face. Tears of anger.

Beca growled as she pushed Chloe back and she fell on her butt. She, in turn, growled back and held Beca by her shoulders. The brunette pushed (with a light slap) Chloe back by her face, her eyes still close and she was mumbling the whole time.

Chloe was fuming. She slapped the brunette's face hard.

"Beca! Wake up!" Chloe yelled.

Beca groaned and covered her ears.

"Why do you have to scream?" Beca slurred.

"Why do you have to be so irresponsible!" Chloe yelled again as she turned off the water.

Beca groaned in response and turned around, laying on her side on the tub with her back to Chloe.

"Beca, come on, let's get you out of those wet clothes and into bed." Chloe said.

Beca whined and pushed Chloe's hands away. Chloe wasn't having it and she grabbed her by the arm and stood her up. She removed her jacket and top by force. The brunette wasn't wearing a bra.

"What the fuck! Leave me alone!" Beca said, trying to fight her.

"Where are your shoes?" Chloe frowned as she took off Beca's skirt.

"Stop it! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Beca screamed as she tried kicking the taller girl.

Chloe dodged most of her kicks but one hit her stomach and took her breath away. She knelt down and held her stomach, trying to regain her breath.

Beca saw this and slapped her face, the girl cried out, holding her cheek and sobbing quietly, this time a mix of anger and pain.

"Beca, stop! I'm trying to help you!" Chloe pleaded.

"I don't need anyone's help!" Beca said, getting ready to kick Chloe again.

Chloe stood up and grabbed Beca's arms and held them tightly behind her back. The girl kept kicking the walls, screaming and trying to let go, but Chloe was stronger.

"Stop it! HELP!" Beca screamed. "She's gonna rape me!"

Chloe had to roll her eyes. She went from an unwanted help to a rapist. That's great.

"Stop being a baby!" She said.

Chloe dragged her to her own room, since she didn't share her room, grabbed some shorts and a T-shirt and tried to put them on the DJ. She managed to get the shirt on, but when she was gonna get the shorts on, Beca kicked her face so hard her nose started bleeding.

"Leave me alone, you bitch!" Beca yelled.

"I don't care what it takes, you're gonna sleep in this room with me! I'm tired of your behavior, I will lock this damn door if that's what it takes to make you stay, Beca." Chloe said, pissed, holding her bleeding nose. "Now go to bed!"

"Dude just leave me alone!" Beca whined.

"I swear to God, Beca, if I have to hit you and tie you up, I _will_!" Chloe spat. "And I fucking mean it."

Beca just threw her head back and whined before she actually went to Chloe's queen size bed. She got under the covers and quickly fell asleep.

Chloe took a few calming breaths. She locked the door as promised, changed into comfy clothes and joined the DJ in bed. She didn't fall asleep, she sat on the bed, holding tissues on her nose to make it stop bleeding. She was crying. Beca _never_ went physical. Well she just did once but never towards any of the Bellas.

Chloe knew she was gonna have bruises the next morning and her muscles were starting to get sore but what else could she do? Leave Beca there? Not take care of her? She'd do anything for the girl. Hell she even took kicks and punches from the younger girl and she didn't regret it. She knew she _would've_ regretted it if she left Beca passed out at SBT.


	8. Chapter 7

The next morning, Chloe woke up first and she went downstairs to start making breakfast. And to put some ice on her nose. It wasn't bleeding anymore but it was a little purple.

She yawned as she prepared some pancakes, eggs and bacon and grabbed a bottle of Aspirin, taking one for herself then leaving it on the counter, knowing Beca would need it too.

Stacie woke up next and yawned as she helped Chloe with breakfast. She started putting the plates on the counter then she went to the cupboard to get the cups.

"You look tired, Chlo." She said. "More so than usual. And what the hell happened to your nose?!"

"A guy from Sigma Beta Theta called me last night." She said. "Beca was passed out at the party, she had done coke, heroine and God knows what else and had sex with five guys who stole her underwear and then she passed out. I brought her home and she was furious with me. Started punching me and kicking me, which got me the nose."

"Oh my God!" Stacie gasped.

They both tried to keep their voices low so they wouldn't wake the others.

"I hope last night was her wake up call." Chloe said.

"Me too!" Stacie said.

"Well, let's monitor her today." Chloe said. "Or for the next few days."

"Yeah." Stacie said. "And maybe we can actually get her to help us with the arrangement."

"Maybe." Chloe said with a sigh as Flo came in, rubbing her eyes and mumbling in Spanish.

The others woke up pretty soon, Beca being the last one. She just sat down quietly and ate her food. Bags under her eyes and she kept sniffing and rubbing her nose.

The Bellas felt the tension in the air but no one said anything. Chloe tried to play it cool, as if she was drawing a line on the sand for Beca.

"So Beca, I was hoping you'd help me with the arrangement for the World's since we _still_ don't have it." Chloe said.

"I have it ready." Beca said, rubbing her nose again.

"Oh good!" Chloe said. "You and I are gonna work on that today."

Beca mumbled a response that sounded like 'okay' without looking up from her plate. She continued eating as if nothing major happened the previous night.

 _Does she even remember?_ Chloe asked herself with a puzzled look.

oO0Oo

For the next week, they had no problem with Beca, she stayed in the house, though she was always locked in her room, but she rehearsed with them. She wasn't as sarcastic as she used to be, though. She didn't make any snarky comments or try to make everybody laugh, she was just there. Not at all like the old Beca. The girls still preferred this over a party Beca who'd do drugs and sleep with endless guys _any_ day.

After lunch, Cynthia Rose and Lily did the dishes while Stacie and Flo worked on some moves and Jessica and Ashley pitched in with some ideas.

Beca and Chloe were up on the redhead's bedroom working on the arrangement. Beca was showing what she had done and so far it was amazing. The song suddenly stopped and she sighed, running her hands through her hair.

"And then I got nothing." Beca said.

Chloe scrunched up her nose in thought, something she did very often which all the Bellas found endearing, Beca herself included.

"Maybe we could go with a slow song." Chloe said.

"How about that song Legacy is always singing?" Beca asked.

Chloe was surprised, for a girl who was never around she knew a lot about what was going on.

"The one she wrote?" Chloe asked and Beca nodded. "But it's an original! We can't put that in there!"

"Why not? It's cute, it's a cool song, it's easy.." Beca said.

"Beca, no one _ever_ sings an original in an a cappella competition." Chloe said.

"Exactly! It's gonna be new, exciting! I read the rules, there's no rule against that, Chloe." Beca said.

"Well..." Chloe said.

"How about this: we'll sing this song, we're gonna start slow and then when the song reaches its climax, we bring in all the former Bellas. Like all of them!" Beca said. "After all, this could be the end of the Bellas and I thought it could be cool if our final performance was something meaningful."

Chloe was surprised. She thought about it and yeah there was no rule against them singing an original song instead of a cover. And inviting all the former Bellas sounded like a great idea! What Beca said was true. If that was their last performance as Bellas, they should make it big and meaningful.

"Okay." Chloe said. "Okay, I'm in."

Beca smiled. She actually smiled a real smile for the first time in months and it was all thanks to Chloe. Well not Chloe exactly but the whole thing. That's what Beca told herself at least.

"Thanks, Beca." Chloe said softly and she meant it.

All this time, all she wanted from the brunette was this. Co-captains acting like such, being there to listen to one another's ideas.

"You're welcome, Chlo." Beca said.

Chloe smiled bigger at the nickname. The way Beca smiled back was all that it took for her to forget about being mad at her. It was just the two of them and no drama. No drugs, no sex. Just them.

Beca shook it off when she felt herself leaning in and she stood up.

"So? Is that all for today? Maybe we should tell the girls we have something solid and you can start working on the choreography from there." Beca rambled on.

Chloe frowned, not seeing the reason for Beca's nervousness.

"Yeah, I've been working on that with Stacie. We showed you guys, remember?" Chloe said.

"Oh, yeah!" Beca said. "I.. I'm gonna go out for a run, okay?"

Chloe started to get suspicious.

"It's almost dinner time." She said.

"I'll be quick." Beca said.

"Beca, if you disappear and go to a party, I swear-" Chloe started.

"-I won't." Beca cut her off. "I promise."

Chloe sighed.

"Okay. Bring your phone." She said.

Beca nodded and got out of the room.

Chloe sighed as she went downstairs to join the Bellas.

"We leave for the retreat tomorrow." She reminded them. "I think this will be good for Beca. No parties, no guys to have sex with."

Chloe decided to keep the drugs thing between her and Stacie, she didn't need the other Bellas worried about Beca. Even though she knew they'd seen her that day at the party in the frat house.

"Yeah." Cynthia Rose said. "She snuck off again?"

"She said she was going for a run. She promised she wouldn't go to a party." Chloe said.

"Okay. Sounds good." Cynthia Rose said.

"Yeah." Chloe sighed. "Guys I'm not even hungry, I'm just gonna take a shower and go to bed."

"Okay. Night Chloe!" The girls all said and she smiled tiredly before she went upstairs.

She cried practically all her tears in the shower because she _knew_ Beca wasn't gonna go for a run. She was gonna go find some guy who got her drugs and probably have sex with him. Or three more. Because that's just what Beca does. She runs from her problems and tries to hide them.

Chloe went to bed and cried herself to sleep, keeping her phone close to herself, as if at any moment now, someone was gonna call her to say Beca was passed out in the middle of another frat house and needed someone to pick her up. It shocked Chloe when she thought if that happened, she'd go without a second thought. During all this time, she has been furious with Beca, but she still cared and she was still terrified of what would happen next. That was why she was looking forward to the retreat

Her sleep didn't last long, however. Stacie woke her up by shaking her like there was no tomorrow.

"Chloe! Come on, wake up!" Stacie said, tears in her eyes.

"What happened?" Chloe asked.

"Someone from the hospital called. Beca OD'd." Stacie said in a clear tone.

Chloe jumped from the bed, tears already leaving her eyes as she tried to find her clothes. She put on anything she could find and she left with Stacie and the Bellas to the hospital as fast as they could.

They ran to the lobby and said they were all with Beca Mitchell and a nurse said the doctor would be out to talk to them soon.

They waited.

And waited.

For an hour. Before a tall male doctor finally showed up. They all stood up as he approached them.

"Hello I'm Dr. Freeling, you must be the Bellas." He said with a warm smile and the Bellas nodded. "The good news is Ms. Mitchell is fine, she's asleep right now, though."

"Oh thank God!" Stacie said.

"How bad was it?" Chloe asked.

"Not as bad as we anticipated." Dr. Freeling said. "We're just gonna keep her here for the night to monitor her. She'll be free to go tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, doctor!" The Bellas said.

"Doctor, can I see her?" Chloe asked and bit her lip. "There's something I gotta say to her."

"Okay, she might still be asleep, though." Dr. Freeling said. "Follow me."

Chloe followed the doctor to Beca's room and found the DJ's father sitting next to her bed and she was awake. She looked pale and she had an IV hooked to her arm and another tube connected to her nose.

"I'll leave you girls alone for a second." Dr. Mitchell said.

"I won't be long, Dr. Mitchell." Chloe promised with a small smile.

The man offered her a sad smile in understanding. He seemed to know exactly the type of conversation she wanted to have with Beca.

"Chloe-" Beca started, her voice hoarse and husky, as if she had pebbles down her throat.

"-No no no, Beca. _I'm_ going to talk." Chloe said in a stern voice. "I don't need excuses or apologies right now. I'm just gonna say this _once_ , Beca. You are gonna leave this bed and change once for all and get back to being the Bella you've been for the past 3 years. Or you're done. Did you hear me? You're _done_! The Bellas voted. If you don't pull your shit together, that's _it_ for you. We don't care we won't win without your arrangement or your help. We can't handle your immature behavior anymore, we waited patiently for you to come to us if you were having problems and you didn't. So you're gonna get your ass out of this bed and change or you don't even need to bother showing your face in the Bellas house except to pick your stuff. Is this in _any_ way unclear?"

Beca felt tears filling her eyes and she lost her voice. Instead she shook her head and the redhead left. She cried a little bit until her father came back. He offered her a sympathetic look as he sat down and grabbed her hand.

* * *

 _ooooh what's gonna happen next?_


	9. Chapter 8

_I forgot about this story because the document wasn't loading on Google Docs so I had to copy and rewrite the whole chapter on Pages lol_

 _And I'm somewhat happy with the response I got! Hopefully I didn't make you guys hate Beca so much you don't want her to be with Chloe in the end and hopefully after reading this you'll have at least a little bit of compassion for her._

 _Sorry for any mistakes I might have made, I wrote this ages ago (I wrote something else, then changed it) and to tell you the truth I didn't read it before I posted it (I only wrote a little bit more at the end because it was incomplete). I wanted suspense, I wanted to feel like a reader lol_

* * *

The Bellas had never seen Chloe so angry in their entire college life. The redhead had been a mess this entire time but now she was downright scary. Scarier than Aubrey Posen losing her shit, scary.

Stacie was afraid to knock on the door but she did and slowly went in. She saw Chloe unpacking her bags, starting by her shirts. She was obviously angry and she was crying.

"Chloe..? What are you doing?" Stacie asked, going for the safest question. She knew she couldn't ask 'are you okay?'.

"What does it seem like I'm doing? I'm unpacking." Chloe spoke angrily.

"Why?" Stacie asked.

"We're not going to this fucking retreat anymore. Forget this." Chloe said, moving faster to get her clothes out of her luggage. "Forget the retreat, forget the World's, forget the Bellas!" by the end of the sentence, the redhead was screaming and Stacie had to hold her tight to stop her from throwing things around her room.

Chloe just kicked and screamed at Stacie for a few long moments, before she gave up and broke down into heavy sobs. Stacie then turned her around, since she had been holding her from behind, and hugged her. She didn't say anything, she just held the redhead because she knew there was nothing she could say.

"She ruined it. She ruined everything." Chloe spoke as she sobbed onto Stacie's shoulder.

"I know." Stacie sighed. "Look, what else can we do? We waited for her to come to us if she had any problems, she didn't. We told her to stop, she didn't. We tried to help her, most of all you, but she didn't. We tried everything."

"Why? Why did she do that, Stacie? Why?" Chloe asked, sobbing harder.

"Well… I don't know." Stacie said.

It took about half thirty to forty five minutes for Chloe to finally calm down. By the time she stopped crying, her eyes were very puffy and red. Her nose looked like really red as well and her face was all wet with tears.

"We should go to sleep." Chloe pulled apart and wiped her face, going to her luggage and picking out some comfy clothes.

"Are we still going to the retreat?" Stacie asked, almost defeated.

Chloe shrugged.

"I guess now, we've hit rock bottom. Actually, we fell face first onto a pile of crap." Chloe said. "There's nowhere left to go."

"But up." Stacie said in a soft tone. "We have nowhere else to go but up. There isn't a reason why we shouldn't at least try to save the Bellas, right?"

Chloe shrugged. She felt drained, completely devoid of feeling, she physically couldn't cry or sob anymore.

"Okay." Stacie said. "You should get some sleep, Chlo."

"Not like I'm gonna fall asleep." Chloe said.

"Just try to." Stacie said. "Beca's in the hospital, she can't do drugs and have sex anymore."

"Don't mention her, I don't wanna hear her name." Chloe said.

Stacie bit her lips and nodded. She said goodnight and quietly left the room. She went to her own room and checked her watch, it was 2 in the morning. She sighed as she lied down. The house was so silent, it felt dead.

oO0Oo

The Bellas couldn't lie, they weren't expecting the DJ to show up at the house. They expected her father to come pick her stuff up and apologize for her.

So when Beca showed up, looking like a dog with a tail between its legs, with a small tube and tape still connected to her nose and a band aid on her arm where the IV was, they were surprised. No one said anything, though.

Chloe was still upstairs when she showed up so she didn't know the brunette had come back. Stacie had her arms crossed as she watched the brunette with her head low make her way through the very angry Bellas.

"Beca, I need to talk to you." she said firmly and went upstairs to the room the brunette shared with Amy. Beca followed her slowly.

Stacie let Beca in and shut the door. She took a few deep breaths with closed eyes before she opened them and looked at Beca.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" She asked, trying her hardest not to raise her voice. "Are you dumb or just stupid?"

Beca looked taken aback, but didn't say anything. Stacie then noticed she was moving weird because she had what seemed like a heartbeat monitor.

"Don't you see what you put Chloe through? Beca.. Chloe loves you. Or loved. I don't really know anymore, I don't think she does." Stacie said. "Do you realize how broken she is right now?! Do you know how hard she'd cry whenever you were out with your frat guys and your drugs? Do you?!"

Beca simply shook her head, tears filling her eyes.

"If it were for me, you wouldn't be allowed back in. You would've been kicked out a long time ago. But Chloe apparently still hopes you'll change. I think it's useless." Stacie shrugged. "Chloe.. Chloe has the biggest heart I have ever seen in anyone. She did everything for you. Hell, she intentionally failed to be a Bella, to be with you! And you pull a stunt like this! I swear if I could, I would punch your face repeatedly."

Beca immediately brought her arms up to hide her face and let out a strangled cry.

"That morning, I woke up and went down to the kitchen and found Chloe looking like a mess, her nose was almost purple. She said you had done that to her. But amazingly, she didn't look angry. She was still hoping you'd change. She told me how you two actually got the arrangement and how she was so happy you were cooperating! How can you do this to Chloe? How can you be so selfish?!" Stacie said and she was crying as well. "All this time.. Chloe has been anything but selfish, Beca. All she thought about was you. Unfortunately, all you thought about was also you."

Stacie sighed, looking defeated and angry at the same time, which was weird.

"Just.. stay the hell away from me." Stacie said and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

They noticed the brunette's tears as she entered the bus quietly. She sat down and kept looking down at her hands the whole time, crying. She wiped her tears occasionally but she didn't say anything.

The Bellas didn't say anything the entire drive, which was only like an hour and a half, they just sat there awkwardly, waiting for someone to say something. Chloe was still pissed, she never looked at Beca the whole ride. The only sound in the bus would be either Beca sniffing or her heart monitor.

When they got there, the place was huge, it had a huge lake and it looked really fun.

"This place is sweet!" Emily said.

"Where did you hear about this place, Chloe?" Stacie asked.

Chloe opened her mouth to answer but in that moment, the person she was gonna talk about answered the question for her.

"From yours, truly." Aubrey said, holding a musket with a smile as she placed her sunglasses on the top of her head. "Hello, Bellas."

"Aubrey!" the Bellas all ran to give her a big group hug.

Beca let out a small smile and she walked slowly over to Aubrey. She looked up and the blonde offered her a small smile.

"Beca." she said with a small nod.

Beca just gave her a very small smile, ashamed. She knew Chloe most probably told Aubrey about what happened. If she didn't, she was just sure the blonde knew.

Beca stood outside of the circle the Bellas made around Aubrey as they bombarded her with questions about the place and everything. Beca just stood there a few feet away awkwardly. She felt as though she wasn't wanted there and she still felt weak.

Aubrey sent them to the lake to work on various team building exercises and although it was fun and sure enough some of them made Beca laugh, she felt chest pains and had to slow down or stop every once in a while. Fortunately, Aubrey didn't complain or yell at her for that so that was good.

When the afternoon came, Aubrey said they should set up the tent they'd be sleeping in and all the girls started.

Chloe was sleeping next to Beca, of course, she was upside down, but she thought it was weird that Beca hadn't said a single word and she still had that band aid on her arm, she had taken the one on her nose off during the day. She knew the brunette was still recovering but she wasn't saying a word. Aubrey said she'd make them sing the next day though so Chloe was looking forward to that.

"I can't sleep with this stupid noise." Stacie spoke angrily, referring to Beca's monitor.

Beca turned her head to Stacie's direction and the taller brunette had her arms crossed and was staring at the 'ceiling'. Beca just sighed and sat up, eyes already tearing up and made her way outside the tent. She sat down just outside, a few feet away so no one could hear the heart monitor and lied down on the grass, crying.

"Much better." Stacie said with a smile and put on her sleep mask.

The girls were a little surprise at how harsh Stacie was being. It wasn't like her to be like that. Chloe was actually now feeling bad for Beca. She knew it was stupid and she shouldn't feel that way but come on, sleeping on the ground? She kept telling herself it was what she deserved.

Surprisingly this time, Chloe fell asleep quickly, thanks to all the team building exercises Aubrey had them do, because she was exhausted. She didn't get much sleep though and she was tired of it. But this time, quiet sobs woke her and a rather quick beeping. She sat up and looked outside the tent and she could see the girl sitting on the grass, sobbing quietly, clutching her chest. She didn't say anything, she just cried as the monitor beeped. Chloe felt an ache in her heart but she didn't want to talk to the younger girl, she just turned on her side and tried to go back to sleep. The ache in her heart was still there and the beeping didn't stop for a while.

oO0Oo

The next day started way too early for the Bellas liking. Aubrey started singing with them and they all heard Beca join them but she wasn't singing to her potential, she wasn't even singing that loudly.

Chloe was starting to get impatient, they were all working their hardest and Beca didn't seem to be even trying. She was quiet, she didn't apologize for her behavior, she didn't say anything to anyone.

"Okay, Bree, I wanna stop for a second." she said.

Aubrey looked confused but allowed the break.

"Beca, I wanna talk to you." Chloe said, making everyone confused.

Beca looked very confused but she stepped forward.

"Look, we made a deal, you were _only_ supposed to show if you wanted to make a commitment to the Bellas, if you went back to the Bella you've been for the past 3 years. I don't see that, I know you're still recovering but you haven't said a word! To any of us!" Chloe said. "So if you don't wanna be here, you shouldn't. You should just go then."

Beca felt tears filling her eyes and she put her hand on her neck as if her throat was hurting.

"Last night.. at the hospital, I stayed up all night. Throwing up blood." Beca said. "All night long I've had chest pains and the doctor explained that I was at risk of having a heart attack or a stroke. He wanted to keep me there another night but I _begged_ him to let me go. Because I wanted to be here. I _want_ to be a Bella and I want to make it up for what I did. But it physically _hurts_ me. Last night I woke up with chest pains again and the heart monitor started beeping and I was afraid I was gonna die in the middle of the woods because of how stupid I was. I am more than willing to make a commitment, but right now I'm still in pain, I'm still recovering. I came because I knew how mad you were gonna be if you thought I just gave up on this. The Bellas."

Chloe was speechless for the first time in months. She didn't even think Beca could be going through all that. She just thought the girl was being stubborn, or that she didn't want to be there.

"I didn't know that." Chloe said simply, holding her head up.

"None of you knew that because instead of asking if I was alright, if I was okay, you guys remained quiet. I know what I did was wrong, I _know_ it! I'm aware of my mistakes." Beca said. "But I was expecting some sort of comfort I've always felt when I was with you. When I didn't feel that I thought maybe I screwed up so bad, I don't deserve to be here anymore."

Chloe looked up at her.

"So you wanna quit?" she asked.

"I don't _want_ to. But I feel unwanted here." Beca said. "I feel like my mistake was so huge it affected you so much, you don't want me anymore."

"Beca, we want you here. We want our captain back!" Chloe said. "Yes, I'm still mad about what you did, because I feel like you don't understand what you put _us_ through. Especially me."

The Bellas had taken a seat and were listening quietly, Aubrey too. She was actually surprised at both, they usually didn't fight like this.

"What? You think I don't _know_ that? You think it was _easy_ every time you tried to help me and I had to push you away?" Beca asked. "I know about everything I did, Chloe, and I _know_ it wasn't the smartest thing."

"Then why did you do it?! What were you trying to do, kill yourself?!" Chloe screamed, frustrated.

"Yes!" Beca screamed and that surprised them all, even Chloe, whose eyes widened.

It was silent for a few long moments. Chloe and Beca were just staring at each other. Beca had a little bit of anger and a lot of sadness and hurt in her eyes.

"You were trying.." Chloe didn't finish, her eyes were filling with tears.

"Jesse was right when he said I couldn't be straight. I'm _not_ straight, I'm not bi, I'm gay." she admitted, which earned a few gasps.

"So you were trying to kill yourself.. because you didn't wanna be gay? That's so.. stupid, Beca." Chloe said.

Beca looked pissed and sad at the same time.

"You.." Beca said, her voice breaking. She shut her eyes and tried to stop herself from sobbing.

"You know you have no reason to be crying." Stacie jumped in, since she knew Chloe wouldn't say it. "Being gay isn't an excuse to do what you did."

"I thought.. I thought you guys.. would a-accept me." Beca said.

"No, we accept you for being whoever you are. What we cannot tolerate is you behaving like a drug addict and we have to clean up after you." Chloe said.

"I.. I was.." Beca was lost, she didn't know what to say anymore. Actually she _did_ know what to say, she just didn't know how to say it now.

"You what? Come on, give us your best excuse." Chloe said and crossed her arms.

Beca wiped her tears.

"Jesse and the Trebles knew." she said and looked down. "People were bullying me.. saying.. mean stuff. Some guys even try to beat me up but Jesse stopped them."

Stacie scoffed and walked closer to Beca.

"Are you going to be a baby?" she asked. "Are you going to create some stupid story to try and get us to forgive you?"

"I wanna go home." Beca said and tried pushing Stacie aside but the brunette pushed her back.

"No, you're gonna stay. And you're gonna tell us your little sob story. Come on, give us your best shot." Stacie said.

"Stacie." Chloe said, thinking the brunette was going overboard.

"No, Chloe, I don't think she understands just what she put us through." Stacie said.

"You really think I don't? You think I don't know how badly I broke Chloe?" Beca said. "Why do you think I was trying to kill myself?!"

Stacie remained quiet, not surprised or phased.

"I'm trying to tell you guys something.. something that terrifies me to this very day!" Beca said.

Chloe stepped in and pulled Stacie back a little bit.

"Tell us." Chloe said.

Stacie looked at Chloe as if she'd grown two heads.

"You're way too nice sometimes." she said and walked away, back to where the Bellas were.

Chloe looked back at Beca.

"What is it?" Chloe asked, even though her tone wasn't very comforting, it was a lot softer than Stacie's.

"I.. I had.. feelings for you.. since Freshman year.. and before you say anything, the last person I liked got me in a hospital for two months." Beca said. "I.. I thought going for Jesse was the safe option. Then the other guys.. I thought they'd make the pain go away, I thought it would work. But it _didn't_. So I started using drugs because.. because they made things easier.. for a while. But then they stopped."

"What were you so scared of? Why couldn't you just tell me?" Chloe asked. "What happened that made you so afraid of just telling me?"

Beca took a deep breath and looked down.

\- Flashback -

 _Beca blushed as she sat down on her seat in school. She grabbed her notebooks and looked up at a blonde girl who sat beside her. The girl noticed her looking and sent her a wink, which made Beca blush deeper._

 _She looked down at her notebook and quickly scribbled something down with her shaky hand. She then folded the piece of paper and passed it to the girl._

 _'can we meet in the auditorium today after school?_

 _Beca'_

 _Beca smiled when the girl quickly gave her the paper back. She opened and in the other side, she wrote,_

 _'sure, I'm looking forward to it ;)_

 _xoxo - Dylyn'_

 _Beca smiled and felt like a teenage boy with a crush. Well, her and Dylyn had been dating for a month now and they would meet in secret sometimes. Beca hadn't told her parents yet, she wasn't ready, but she was sure her mom already knew._

 _Beca was walking to her next class when she was stopped by a group of girls. They grabbed her and dragged her into the girl's bathroom and into a stall._

 _"We know what you've been doing, dyke!" one of the girl said as she pushed her head into the toilet._

 _Beca kicked her arms and legs and that's when the two other girls grabbed her and stopped her from fighting._

 _The girl grabbed her hair and pulled her out of the toilet with a laugh._

 _"You're just getting what you deserve!" she said, pushing Beca into the toilet again._

 _Beca's lungs were burning and she was crying already. The girl pulled her back._

 _"That's what we do to stupid dykes." she pushed her into the toilet once again and spat on her, making the other girls laugh._

 _"We're just curing you of this thing." another girl said._

 _"Just admit you're a clitty licker, clitty licker!" the girl pushing her head in the toilet said and the others laughed._

 _A teacher came in and sent all the other girls to their classes. Beca just thanked her and ran, crying. She managed to dry herself before class, though._

 _After school, Beca quietly made her way to the school auditorium and found it empty. She walked down the aisles between the seats and put her bag down on one of the front row chairs._

 _"Beca!" Dylyn said, coming in._

 _Beca smiled and kissed her before Dylyn pulled apart._

 _"Beca.. I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore." she said._

 _"What?" Beca asked, confused._

 _"Well.. my brother found out and told my parents. They said they won't have a dyke in the family." Dylyn said._

 _"But.." Beca said._

 _"I'm sorry, Beca." Dylyn said._

 _Beca sighed before looking up at the blonde._

 _"Can I kiss you just one last time?" she asked._

 _Dylyn smiled and allowed the brunette to place a gentle kiss on her lips. Before Beca could intensify the kiss, though, they heard the door opening and immediately Dylyn pushed Beca away. Hard._

 _"What the fuck are you doing, Beca?" she demanded._

 _Beca frowned at her. She saw three girls and two boys had entered._

 _"I was just coming here to offer you help!" Dylyn said._

 _"Dylyn.." Beca said._

 _"I_ hate _you, Beca Mitchell! Stay the hell away from me!" Dylyn said and she said it with such an anger that if Beca hadn't been dating her for a month, she would've believed her._

 _"You don't know that you don't offer help to a queer like Beca?" a girl said._

 _"Yeah, you just teach her a lesson." a boy said and they all started running towards her._

 _Beca panicked and ran backstage and out the back door, running as fast as she could, but when she neared the gym, the group caught up to her and dragged her inside, she was screaming all the way. She screamed louder when she noticed there were a few older boys playing basketball._

 _"What's going on?" the taller one asked._

 _"This queer here just kissed your sister!" a girl said._

 _"Are you insane? You stupid little dyke, you stay away from my sister!" the guy yelled and punched Beca in the face. The girls held her tighter._

 _He punched her again and her nose started bleeding as well as her lip. The girls let her go and she fell to the ground, groaning in pain. She then received a kick on her ribs and a bunch more all over her body. She cried and screamed for them to stop but she received two hard kicks on her right eye._

 _"Guys, guys, look! The dyke is out!" a guy yelled, laughing._

 _"Oh my God, out like light." A girl said, though the voices seemed distant._

 _"Dude, she got what she deserved!" another guy laughed._

 _"Come on, let's just leave her."_

 _"Stupid dyke."_

 _Another hard kick to her face._

 _The group left her but Beca couldn't stand up. She groaned, thinking she'd die there, when her world turned black._

\- End of Flashback -

Beca wiped her tears, remembering that moment.

"I had two broken ribs, a broken nose, a concussion, a ruptured eardrum and I had a 60% chance of losing my sight in my right eye. I stayed in the hospital for ten weeks before my right eye finally opened and the doctors saw there was no permanent damage. It took me three months for my eardrum to heal." Beca said.

No one said anything, they just waited for Beca to say something.

"I was afraid. I was afraid I was gonna get beat up again.." Beca said and continued crying.

"Beca.." Chloe started, not knowing what to say.

"I know, okay! I know drugs don't solve anything, I know. I was.. I actually.." Beca sighed, defeated. She wiped a few more tears.

"Wait so you.. why did you feel you had to resort to drugs?" Chloe asked.

"The last person I had feelings for threw me to the wolves! I'd rather do drugs and die of overdose than get beat up like that again." Beca said. "Which is something you guys will never understand, thank God. So I'm sorry. I'm sorry for ruining this year for everyone, I'm sorry for not being the captain you guys deserve, I'm sorry for everything."

The Bellas remained quiet, even Stacie, which shocked Beca.

She took a few deep breaths and, to her own surprise, who spoke next was Chloe.

"Beca, we're sorry for what you went through.. we're sorry that something so horrible happened to you." Chloe sighed. "And to be honest with you I kinda had feelings for you, too, but now.. you made it difficult for me to trust you."

"I know." Beca sighed.

"Well not only me, you made it difficult for all of us to trust you." Chloe said. "And what I'm saying is, if you're up for it we're ready to take our captain back.. if you show us we can really trust you."

"Okay." Beca said and nodded her head. "I can do it. I promise you guys."

"That's all we need to hear, Beca. And we all swear if you fail on us again-"

"-I won't." Beca cut her off with a look of determination on her face.

"Okay." Chloe said. "And if you work hard and get me to trust you again, maybe you and I could go out for a cup of coffee."

"Okay." Beca said. "I promise guys, I won't let you down again. I promise."

Chloe nodded, still looking serious. She still couldn't fully trust Beca, she couldn't ask her out because a big part of her told her she was gonna get heartbroken again so now it was time to play it safe. A small part of her was hoping Beca was telling the truth and that things would turn out okay. Who knows. Only time would tell.


	10. Chapter 9

_Guess who's back? ;)_

 _I know this is short but I just wanted to give you guys something_

* * *

The tension between the girls dissipated after Beca told them her story. She was still laid back and didn't do much physical exercise but she told them it still hurt her to sing, so she didn't do it to her full potential.

When they went back home, Beca helped a lot. She was early to every rehearsal and usually was the last one to leave. She helped the girls by telling them what they were doing wrong and she corrected them. The girls were very thankful and they could see the change in their captain. She was _finally_ their captain.

Chloe was still in doubt, but she felt more and more at ease everyday. She did, however, feel confident the Bellas could actually win at the World's.

One afternoon, after rehearsal, Stacie made her way up to Chloe's room and got in, finding the redheaded captain folding her laundry and putting most of it away.

"Chlo?" she asked carefully.

"Yeah?" Chloe asked.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Sure." Chloe answered distractedly.

"Umm it's about Beca." Stacie said.

"Yeah?" Chloe said as she folded one white sweatshirt and put it in a pile with the others.

"I just.. I don't know, I.." Stacie sighed as soon as she noticed she couldn't get a sentence out.

"You..?" Chloe asked, folding a pink top.

"I feel bad for talking to Beca like that." Stacie said.

Chloe looked up at her and sighed, stopping what she was doing.

"Me too." she said. "I shouldn't have.. told her it was stupid."

Stacie sighed.

"But you know, we should be apologizing to her, not to each other." Chloe warned.

"Right." Stacie nodded.

Chloe gave her a look and went back to her laundry.

Stacie sighed and left the room.

Chloe finished folding her laundry and putting her clothes away and sat down on her bed. She thought about everything for a good 10 minutes before grabbing her purse, putting on some sneakers and leaving. She went to the auditorium, hoping to find some peace and quiet so she could take notes, go over the choreography in her head but she found a tiny brunette sitting by the piano, looking through her laptop, sometimes writing stuff down on a small notebook.

"Beca?" Chloe said. She was surprised to find her there, she thought she was at the Bellas house.

"Oh, hey." Beca said, putting her laptop on top of the grand piano.

"Sorry, I didn't think anyone would be here." Chloe said, putting her purse on one of the chairs.

"Oh. I can— I can go." Beca closed her notebook and her laptop, standing up.

"No, it's okay." Chloe said with a sigh. "I actually was hoping I'd run into you."

Beca looked surprised and she sat back gown, putting her stuff on the floor.

"Beca, I'm sorry I was a bitch. You trying to kill yourself is not at all stupid, for any reason." Chloe said, getting closer to her. "I wanna know that if you let me, I'm gonna support you through your recovery."

Beca offered her a small hint of a smile.

"Thanks." she said.

Chloe nodded towards the seat next to Beca on the bench.

"Can I..?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Beca said and sat closer to the edge to give Chloe more space.

"So were you working on the set?" Chloe asked, nodding towards the piano.

"No, I was.. I was writing some stuff." Beca scratched the back of her neck. "Well, a music producer wants to hear my work and I.. well through recovery I discovered that writing music calms me down so… I'm taking a shot."

"Oh, that's cool." Chloe asked. "Is it done yet?"

"Umm yeah, I— I just finished." Beca said, opening her notebook.

"Can I hear it?" Chloe asked.

Beca looked surprised, she hugged her notebook to her chest.

"What— really?" she asked.

"Yeah." Chloe said.

Chloe was giving Beca another chance, the girl had been showing she deserved and all the other Bellas agreed. She couldn't shut the girl out, she knew if she did, that'd make things worse.

"Okay." Beca said, putting her notebook up so she could read her notes and positioned her hands on the piano.

Chloe cringed when Beca's hands made an awful combination of notes and the brunette immediately took her hands away, cringing as well.

"Sorry, wrong key." Beca said and looked closer at her notes. She took her pen and corrected it with an eyeroll and a quiet 'so stupid' mumble which made Chloe giggle.

Beca hit the right keys this time and nodded at herself.

 _"And another one bites the dust  
Oh why can I not conquer love?  
_ _And I might have thought that we were one  
_ _Wanted to fight this war without weapons_

 _And I wanted it, I wanted it so bad  
_ _But there were so many red flags  
_ _Now another one bites the dust  
_ _Oh let's be clear, I'll trust no one"_

Chloe watched as Beca shut her eyes and concentrated. So far, the lyrics were beautiful and she saw how much emotion Beca was putting into the song, it was amazing.

 _"You did not break me  
_ _I'm still fighting for peace_

 _Well, I've got thick skin and an elastic heart  
_ _But your blade - it might be too sharp  
_ _I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard  
_ _I may snap and I move fast  
_ _You won't see me fall apart  
_ _'Cause I've got an elastic heart_

 _Oh, I've got an elastic heart  
_ _I've got an elastic heart"_

Beca had a determined look in her eyes. She completely forgot Chloe was there, she was singing to herself only, she was telling herself she was strong and she would get through this.

 _"And I will stay up through the night  
_ _And let's be clear, won't close my eyes  
_ _And I know that I can survive  
_ _I'll walk through fire to save my life_

 _And I want it, I want my life so bad  
_ _I'm doing everything I can  
_ _Then another one bites the dust  
_ _It's hard to lose a chosen one"_

Chloe bit her lip as she watched Beca pour everything into those last verses, both had tears in their eyes. She had known Beca for 4 years now and she knew the brunette wasn't a songwriter, she didn't typically write songs.

 _"You did not break me, oh  
_ _I'm still fighting for peace_

 _Well, I've got thick skin and an elastic heart  
_ _But your blade - it might be too sharp  
_ _I'm like a rubber band until you pull too hard  
_ _I may snap and I move fast  
_ _You won't see me fall apart  
_ _'Cause I've got an elastic heart  
_

 _I've got an elastic heart  
_ _I've got an elastic heart  
_ _I've got an elastic heart"_

The last words were sang softly as Beca played the final keys and ended the song, looking at the piano keys as she breathed heavily. She then raised a hand to wipe her tears and jumped when she heard a sniff.

"Beca, that's… that's so beautiful." Chloe said, still crying. "So, so beautiful."

"Thanks." Beca said, wiping her tears. "I'm working on another one, the guy said I should have two original songs."

"I can't wait to hear the next one." Chloe said.

"Thanks." Beca said. "I'll play it to you when I finish it."

Chloe offered the brunette a small smile and patted her knee.

"So how's recovery?" Chloe asked.

"The first couple weeks were the hardest. I've been visiting a doctor and a therapist every week and I feel better." Beca said. "A lot better."

"That's nice to hear." Chloe said.

"Thanks." Beca sighed.

Chloe offered a small smile and sighed.

"Listen, I know Stacie wants to apologize to you too." Chloe said.

Beca nodded, closing her notebook and putting it in her bag.

"Beca, I…" Chloe sighed.

"Yeah?" Beca asked.

"Okay, I'm gonna risk this. Do you wanna go out for a cup of coffee?" Chloe asked.

Beca looked at her and Chloe could see she was happy, her eyes lit up immediately.

"Really?" she asked with a smile.

"Yeah. But not as in a date.. yet." Chloe said. "I think I still need—"

"— No, don't worry, I get it." Beca said. "You wanna see if I'm worth a date, it's cool. I'm up for it, I'm taking all the chances you give."

Chloe smiled.

"Okay, so tomorrow? At five?" Chloe asked. "Our regular coffee shop?"

"Sure. I'll be there." Beca said.

Chloe smiled as Beca got her bag ready and stood up.

"Thanks, Chloe." she said. "Really. I won't screw this up again."

Chloe nodded and Beca waved and left, claiming she was gonna pick up some dinner before going home.

Chloe sighed and felt good about this. It wasn't a date, but she was going to see if Beca was worth going on a date with. She was still earning her trust after all.

* * *

 _I bet you were expecting another song right? I was going to have Beca write '_ Just Give Me A Reason _' but 1. that was too cliché and 2. the lyrics to '_ Elastic Heart _' can relate to Beca a little bit more and I think it makes it more beautiful._

 _Listen to_ Elastic Heart _cover by Madilyn Bailey for this_


End file.
